Scientists from Sanford research lab to speak in Huron Tuesday

Posted: Thursday, Nov 29th, 2012BY: PLAINSMAN STAFF

HURON — Scientists conducting research nearly one mile below ground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead will explain some of their experiments at a free public presentation Tuesday in Huron.

The presentations will run from 11:50 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Huron Event Center. For those who want lunch, it will be available at 11:30 a.m. for a fee. Those planning to come for lunch are asked to RSVP to the Huron Chamber & Visitors Bureau at 352-0000 or email sanfordlabevents@gmail.com.

University of South Dakota physicist Vincente Giuseppe will talk about the Majorana Demonstrator experiment, which will look for one of nature’s rarest radioactive decays.

The experiment could help scientists better understand the origins of matter itself.

Physicist Jeremy Mock of the University of California, Davis, will speak via a live, two-way videoconference from 4,850 feet underground at the lab in the Black Hills.

He is helping to prepare the Large Underground Xenon dark matter detector. Though it comprises more than 80 percent of the matter in the universe, dark matter has never been directly detected on earth.

The lab is located at the former Homestake gold mine, which closed in 2003. The property was donated to South Dakota in 2006 for use as an underground laboratory.

T. Denny Sanford donated $70 million to the project, of which $50 million was used to help reopen the gold mine and $20 million established the Sanford Center for Science Education.

The South Dakota Science and Technology Authority was created by the state Legislature to operate the lab.